In a conventional character belt for use in a line printer where character blocks each carrying a plurality of fingers are mounted on the belt and characters are provided at the ends of the fingers, the character blocks are of such a shape that they are neither influenced by nor influence vibration of a finger subsequent to a printing operation. Consequently, when the finger is struck by a printing hammer, the finger undergoes vibration subsequent to striking the ribbon and paper against the platen. The fact that the character is at the end of the finger makes it unstable; resonance occurs so that the character may strike the ribbon and paper against the platen subsequent to the initial stroke. This phenomenon can result in so-called printing dirt and, the character may not stabilize even by the time it is next struck by a printing hammer. This type of operation may result in destruction of a finger as well as generation of printing ghosts.
As is evident, then, it would be highly desirable to provide a construction in which vibration due to the printing operation itself could be eliminated, thereby preventing both printing dirt and printing ghosts.